April 2005 in rail transport

Events

April 1

All former BC Rail systems and operations are fully integrated into those of the purchasing railroad, Canadian National Railway. Kansas City Southern Railway completes its controlling interest purchase of TFM. OmniTRAX purchases Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado RailNet, Georgia and Florida RailNet and Illinois RailNet from North American RailNet.

April 4

East Japan Railway Company and Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit introduce women-only passenger cars in trains on the Saikyo and Rinkai Lines to deter groping. The sale of General Motors Electro-Motive Division to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners is completed; the new company is known as Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. (EMD).

April 11

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signs into law a bonding bill for the Northstar Corridor Development Authority in Minneapolis worth US$866 million.

April 13

The transport ministry of Bulgaria issues the first freight transport license to a private company, Bulgarian Railroad Company, to operate on the nation's rail network.

April 14

Nineteen cars of a southbound Union Pacific train operating on Canadian National Railway tracks south of Superior, Wisconsin, derail and cause a forest fire near Solon Springs, Wisconsin.

April 15

Amtrak cancels all Acela Express trains between Washington, DC, New York City and Boston as cracks are found in the brakes on a majority of the trainsets' coaches. [8] SEPTA begins construction on an US$85 million project to replace and upgrade signal, communications and track switch equipment between its Wayne Junction and Glenside stations

April 16

Alaska Railroad opens its new headquarters building and operations center in Anchorage, Alaska.

April 20

UTA TRAX, in Salt Lake City, Utah, begins construction of its 900 South Station, the railroad's first new station in six years; this is the first station for the railroad that is to be built in a mainly residential area.

April 21

Vadodara rail collision occurred at the village of Samlaya near Vadodara in Gujarat, Western India, when the Sabarmati Express passenger train crashed at high speed into a stationary goods train carrying cement, killing at least 17.

April 23

Los Angeles Metrolink opens a new station in Palmdale on the system's Antelope Valley line.

April 25

Amagasaki rail crash: a JR West commuter train derails and strikes an apartment building in Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan, killing 106 and injuring more than 460 others.

April 26

Polgahawela level crossing collision: bus collides with Sri Lanka Railways train at a level crossing near Polgahawela; 37 bus passengers die.

April 28

English Welsh & Scottish acquires the assets of Probotec Limited, the leading manufacturer of railroad freight car suspension systems in Europe. Swiss engineers blast through the last section of rock on the first bore of the Loetschberg base tunnel project under the Alps. See also Swiss finish drilling world's longest overland tunnel

April 30

English Welsh & Scottish was expected to close a deal that will allow the railway to operate freight trains through the Channel Tunnel; such operations would make EWS one of the first non-governmental companies to operate trains on France's national rail network.[9]

Deaths

April 22 – Margaret Landry Moore, "Miss Southern Belle" spokesmodel for Kansas City Southern's Southern Belle passenger trains (born 1923).

April 28 – Frank Turpin, CEO of Alaska Railroad, 1985–1993 (born 1923).